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18

Fourth FRELIMO Congress

The ANC was among 74 fraternal parties and organisations represented at the the Fourth Congress of the FRELIMO Party in Maputo in April. Messages from the fraternal dele­gates helped to influence the mood of the congress.

When our President, O R Tambo, was to deliver the ANC message, President Machel referred to him as a 'comrade in arms,’ the most hated man by the South African regime and yet, internationally, the most loved by all peace-loving people. He then burst into singing a South African freedom song, ‘Asikhathali noma siyaboshwa’ — *Oh, we don’t care, even if we go to gaol.’ The hall joined in a powerful chorus.

There was a solemn moment when the Lesotho delegation was called on to address the Congress. The gathering was told that the speaker from Lesotho had survived three attempts on his life as a result of the activ­ities of racist South African agents, and that some of his colleagues had fallen as a result of these murderous activities. His speech was very modest, but effective.

There were moments of great excitement and joy, and also sad moments, when people recaUed the days of Kongwa and Machinwea camps in Tanzania, when the struggle de­

pended on patriots who could not read or write, but who were men and women who had made it possible for FRELIMO to reach its present stage. Two weapons used in those days were presented to the Congress, and the veteran who presented them had repaired them. At that time he could not read, or write his name, but the struggle had educated him as it unfolded.

While introducing the veterans with whom he had trained in Tanzania and Algeria, President Machel was overwhelmed with emotion and could not proceed. Congress burst into ‘Kanimambo FRELIMO!’ It was another very solemn moment.

The Central Committee report was pre­sented by Comrade President Machel. It was lengthy and minutely detailed; it took nine hours to present, and spread over two days.

It was extensively discussed by the nat­ional delegates during plenary sessions, and the way the delegates responded to the re­port was impressive. They expressed their views freely, frankly and constructively over matters concerning their country. They ex­pressed their concern over matters detrimen­tal to the well-being of the people, and pressed for those matters to be attended to. (Details of mistakes made and suggested sol­utions to problems can be found in the Cong­ress pamphlet entitled, The Enemy Within.’)

At the same time, the delegates told Congress that they were satisfied that condit­ions had changed for the better, and that, even though there are shortages, Mozam­bicans share the little that is available. The delegates felt proud that they can produce their own raw materials and process them themselves.

The delegates also discussed the econ­omic problems caused by armed bandits, Mozambicans used by the South African racist regime to destabilise Mozambique and sabotage the economy of the country. One woman, speaking in an African language, told Congress about how they had once left a child in a pool of its mother’s blood, and how children had to watch while their mothers were murdered. Delegates told Congress how they are fighting to neutralise these bandits, whose treacherous deeds have hardened the people, made them more determined to fight back, and defend their lives and their country.

The delegates also spoke about projects such as irrigation, the building of hospitals.

Throughout the discussions, delegates minced no words in voicing their concern over the ideological, political and economic problems facing the people. One problem was the high influx of people into the urban areas, despite the efforts being made to im­prove the lives of the people in the country-side. f

Another problem discussed was that ot the distribution of goods. An example was given of how the national radio announces the arrival of goods in the shops when, in fact, these goods are already being sold on the black market. Sometimes goods are available in the shops for a short time, only to reap­pear on the black market. Mozambique is the only country in this part of Africa that trades with and receives goods from the soc­ialist countries, but some of these goods reach shops in countries like Swaziland. Dele gates emphasised that black marketeers should not only be punished, but should be made to point out the warehouses they got their goods from.

Namibian student, Marin Shikangala. addresses the Africa Liberation Day rally in Guyana.

Enemy o f FRELIMO - Pretoria 's spy plane, shot down as it was violating Mozambican air space in May. It had no pilot, but a camera was found on board.

schools and houses, and electrification of the countryside.

The theme of the Congress was, 'Defend the Party, overcome underdevelopment and build socialism.’ The new flag of the party is red in colour, with a golden hammer and hoe, and a star at the top comer.

In all, 130 people were elected to the Central Committee, 13 of them women.

Netherlands Cultural Boycott Conference. The ANC Chief Representative in the United Kingdom, Ruth Mompati, spoke at a week­end conference on the cultural boycott, held by the Netherlands Committee on Southern Africa, at Utrecht in Holland. The confer­ence was also addressed by Pendukeni Kaul-

20 inge, secretary of the Women’s Council of

SWAPO and a member of the SWAPO Cen­tral Committee.

The conference was attended by people connected with culture and the arts, and called for economic and cultural isolation of South Africa, and support for the ANC and SWAPO.

A writers’ panel at the conference was addressed on behalf of the ANC by the South African writer, Cosmo Pieterse. Also on the programme was the performance of a play written by two South Africans now living in Europe.

Guyanan Solidarity with ANC and SWAPO An Africa Liberation Day rally was held ih the Caribbean country of Guyana ih May, at the site of the Umana Yana liberation Mon­ument.

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The rtlly was. addressed by Rashleigh Jackson, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the People’s National Congress Government of Guyana. He said, “The unprovoked aerial bombing of the people of Mozambique by South Africa reflects the success of the liberation forces within South Africa, led by the African National Congress...

“The resolute fight against oppression and for freedom and liberation should be saluted by freedom-loving people through­out the world.”

Speaking of the Namibian struggle, he said, “Now, irrelevant considerations like the presence of Cuban troops in Angola are being raised to thwart the aspirations of the Namib­ian people.

‘The Security Council must now act de­cisively by the use of all measures under the Charter of the United Nations...to bring the South African racists to heel."

The rally was attended by a large crowd. Among them were a number of Namibian students, one of whom addressed the rally. The students, under the sponsorship of SWAPO, are on scholarships given by the People s National Congress Government of Guyana, in an arrangement made through the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Other Caribbean countries which have given scholarships to Namibian students are Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Cuba.

SPORTimcn MV

PARTHEID“International sanctions against South Africa in the fielcf o f sport are directed to apartheid itself; are responsive to the horrors o f the whole 'moral deformity'that apartheid repre­sents; are designed to help the many-sided struggle for the eradication o f this evil sys­tem and the release from bondage under it o f the majority people, the black people, o f South Africa.

“Apartheid sport is sport in apartheid South Africa; cosmetic changes in club houses and sports arenas that leave intact the

whole hideous apparatus o f institutionalised racism do not change the character o f apart­heid sport, or qualify the case for sanctions against it. I cannot stress this too strongly, because the tactic o f apartheid’s architects and apologists is to deflect the international campaign by diverting our gaze from apart­heid itself. ”

So said S Ramphal, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth,, in his opening address to the International Conference on Sanctions 21

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A frican N ational C ongress

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Needs YOUR Support Now

22

against Apartheid Sport, held in London on the 27th to the 29th June, 1983.

The conference was organised by the South African Non-Racial Olympic Commit­tee and the United Nations Special Commit­tee against Apartheid. It was attended by representatives from the United Nations and other inter-govemmental bodies, govern­ments, international sports organisations, the ANC and SWAPO, as well as by individual sportsmen.

Filbert Bayi of Tanzania, former holder of the world record in the 1500 metres, said, “I don’t like to compete with people who support apartheid, and 1 don’t like to com­pete with people who have competed with athletes from South Africa.” This principle, known as the Third Party principle, which provides for sanctions against those who col­laborate with South Africa, was fully endor­sed by the conference.

The conference was informed about pos­itive steps towards isolating the apartheid re­gime which have been taken by the Irish and Dutch governments, among others. The

French government was praised because it used its influence to cancel the proposed South African tour of the French rugby team, and the governments of Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom were called upon to bring about the cancellation of the pending Lions/All Blacks rugby tour of Soutii Africa in July 1983.

Addresses were given by representatives of sporting bodies, such as the International Table Tennis Federation and the Federation Sportive et Gymnique du Travail of France.

There were also reports of campaigns conducted by individuals; for example,in the United States, Arthur Ashe is involved in drawing up a list of sports men and women who refuse to co-operate with apartheid. The Chairman of the conference, H E Victor Gbeho of the Special Committee Against Apartheid, announced that while maintaining the blacklist on the one hand, the United Nations will honour all those sports men and women who have refused to play with apart­

1

heid, by presenting them with a special cert­ificate.

“The time has come for the voice of the athletes to state clearly, yes to sport, yes to friendship and NO to apartheid,” said Nikolaj Baloshin of the USSR, five times European wrestling champion. Soccer stars Brian Stein (Luton Town) Chris Houghton (Republic of Ireland and Tottenham Hotspurs) Ricky Hill (England and Luton Town) and Margitta Gummel, CDR swimming champion, endor­sed this stand by their presence. There was applause for a message from Graham Mourie, the New Zealand rugby captain who refused to play the Springboks in 1981, and Chris Laidlaw, another former All Blacks captain, appealed to athletes to avoid the temptation to earn a ‘quick buck’ by going to South Africa. The conference welcomed a statement by John McEnroe, the tennis champion, in an interview with the newspaper Newsline, in which he said he had turned down an offer of one million dollars for ten days in South Africa. “I believe in equality,” he said, “everyone having the same rights as the next guy, everybody having equal opportun­ities.”

In contrast, the exiled South African tennis player, Jasmat Dhiraj, talked about his own experience of being unable to break into the international tennis circuit because the International Tennis Federation does not recognise the non-racial tennis body in South Africa.

Sporting and Military Links Sport has become one of the major levers for the apartheid regime to gain credibility and acceptability, A numberof cosmetic changes are used to pave the way for even greater diplomatic, political, economic, military and nuclear collaboration. Abdul Minty of the World Campaign against Military and Nuclear Collaboration with South Africa, warned the conference that, at times, under the guise of sport, members of the South African racist Defence Force enteT countries and use these opportunities to gain military benefits as well.

Representing the ANC, Aziz Pahad said, “London is the heart of all sporting conspir­acies with South Africa. It’s no coincidence that ...the Thatcher government will be build­ing their new airfield on the Falklands in col­laboration with the South Africans.” He stressed the need to tackle the case of the in­dividual sportsman, and specifically referred to the tennis player, Kevin Curren: “South Africa will glory in his victory over Jimmy Connors. It was not a personal victory, but one for the South African racists.”

On the other hand, precisely because of its mass appeal, a sports boycott (like a cul­tural boycott) will contribute to getting greater public support for total, mandatory sanctions against such time as normal sport can be played in a South Africa liberated from apartheid. Recurring throughout the confer­ence was the theme that no normal sport can be played in an abnormal society, a point that was made by a documentary on BBC television on 28th June.

Appeal — Support the StruggleThe conference appealed to sports men and women, including administrators and coaches, to refuse to participate in sports ac­tivities with South Africa, and to support the struggle for justice and freedom, though such a stand may involve sacrifices, particul­arly financial sacrifices.

It requested states to deny visas to sports men and women and sports representatives from South Africa.

It appealed to sporting bodies to with­hold support from sporting events organised in violation of the Olympic spirit and United Nations resolutions.

It called upon the International Olympic Committee to take action against countries who continue their sporting contacts with South Africa, and declared, “Further, the Special Committee against Apartheid should consider holding a meeting in Los Angeles early in 1984 to assess the impact of any ac­tion taken by the IOC on this request, and to determine what this would imply for the 1984 Games.”

Dear Sir,

Revolutionary greetings in the name of Nel­son Mandela.

First of all, I mist apologise on behalf of the youth of Jamaica and the West Indies, about the most shameful event that has ever taken place in the history of West Indian cricket: the tour of the sixteen REBEL West Indian cricketers to South Africa.

I can assure your organisation (ANC)

that the majority of the Jamaican population was strongly against the tour, and I am sure that your organisation is aware of the de­cision of the respective Governments and Cricket Clubs of the region (West Indies) to discipline these rebels. They are banned for life from playing cricket for their respective clubs, countries and the West Indies. These cricketers must be seen as Judases, supporters of apartheid and traitors. Jamaica’s stance against apartheid is well known, we signed and support the Gleneagles Agreement.

In 1976 the African States withdrew from the Montreal Commonwealth Games in a protest against New Zealand collaboration with apartheid sport. After the above event, a team of rebel cricketers from England toured South Africa. They were banned from representing their country for three yean. They were followed by a tour by some Sri Lankan cricketers. They were debarred from representing their country for twenty-five years. And now it is the rebel players from the West Indies (black players).

At present, there is a South African play­ing cricket for England, and another one playing for Australia. It may be said that they are naturalised citizens of the above count­ries. But the fact still remains that they were bom in South Africa and developed their cricketing skills in that country.

The whole manoeuvre is a serious matter because some countries will now start asking the question, *Why should we not play with racist South Africa if a team of black players from the West Indies can do it?’ This cricket conspiracy is a very carefully orchestrated plot. A plot to bring back South Africa in international cricket.

The West Indies is the present champion of world cricket, and, I believe, with the help of Pakistan (which has the second best team in the world), India, Sri Lanka and Zim­babwe, should call a meeting with the inter­national cricket ‘Rulers’ and work out ways and means to deal with the cricket conspir­acy of South Africa and its friends.

I also believe that the Commonwealth countries should call a heads of Government conference to review the Gleneagles Agree­ment, because it is not working. The process of collaboration with apartheid cap be halted if we act jointly and collectively. New Zeal­and entertained the Springbok rugby tour — England banned their cricketers who played cricket in South Africa for three years - Sri Lanka barred their players who toured South Africa for twenty-five years — and the West Indies ban their players for life. I do not be­lieve we should have three different discip­linary measures or actions for a similar ‘crime.’ For example, players from X country might play cricket or football in South Africa, and that country may not do anything about it.

Comrade, we, the youth of Jamaica, need reading material on the struggle of our black brothers and sisters in South Africa. You know how the imperialist press works - it feeds the Third World countries with de­ception and misinformation, they tell us what they want to tell us. I am more fortunate than most Jamaican youths, because I have studied, lived and eaten with South African students for three years in Cuba, and they educated me about the struggle in South Africa.

I want to make a contribution to the liberation struggle in South Africa by educ­ating as many people as possible, especially the youth, about apartheid and how danger­ous it is. I am a teacher by profession.

Long live Nelson Mandela!Long live O R Tam bo!Long live the ANC!Long live Umkhonto We Sizwe!The struggle continues - victory is certain.

- L. V. Thomas

S t Andrew,Jamaica.

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UNITY IN ACTIONUnity in Action - a Photographic History o f the African National Congress, South Africa, 1912-1982.

This book, a pictorial history of the ANC, is the first of its kind published by the ANC. It tells in visual form the story of the seventy years of oppression and resistance. Its theme is unity in action, depicting the struggles of the peasants, workers, women.youth, African Indian and Coloured.

Some of these pictures are rare and hitherto unpublished - they were not taken in a studio but on the field of battle. For in­stance, the telegraphic address of the ICU in Cape Town was, “I see you” (p. 25) - this being a translation of what the Cape Town workers then called the ICU — “Indiyaku- bona, Mlungu” (I see you, white man).

The ANC documents, such as the Free­dom Charter, Programme of Action and the manifesto of Umkhonto We Sizwe, enrich the visual impact of the pictorial history.

In the words of 0 R Tambo, President of the ANC, who wrote the foreword:

“To this day, historical distortions per­meate political rhetoric and are used to underpin the ideology of the ruling class and to provide legitimacy for some of its most heinous expressions: racism and exploitation are institutionalised...the distortion is deliberate: it is used to con­done white privilege, to entrench the oppressive and exploitative system and to justify the use of violence to retain power in the hands of the minority. Even the events and developments of this century, within our living memory and experience, are falsified...

■ “For the black majority, relating our • people’s history is not a matter of acad­

emic interest alone — the preparation of

I

;;rre .in «ys fflr«^ a r’T ir’ic i

a report of neutrally observed and agreed facts. Rather, recording our his­tory accurately is a revolutionary act. It serves to enhance our undemanding of the past and guides our way ahead; but in addition, it strikes at the very heart of the enemy’s ideology and rationalis­ations, and unmasks the attempt to con­ceal the inevitability of victory for our struggle.

“This pictorial history, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the ANC, is a contribution to that endeavour. All too frequently cameras, like historians, focus on the rulers, and relegate the people to the background. Most books on South African history tend to be ill­ustrated with photographs of governors, racist ministers, military parades and the leisured white minority. The photo­graphs in this book, many of which were taken by the militants of the liber­ation movement, place the people of South Africa in the centre — depicting their lives, their conditions, their resis­tance.“This is their story - a South African History.”

The book is available from Sechaba Pub­lications.

FM

AKiN TO SLAVERY

Allen Cook, Akin to Slavery. International Defence and Aid, London, 1983, 50p

Of all the systems directed towards exploiting the labour of the black man in South Africa,

the hiring out of prison labour must be the most exploitative. No denial of human r ights can be more flagrant, and if the Reagan and Thatcher governments were, indeed, the de ­fenders of “human rights’ that they pro fess 'to be, they would have denounced it long ayo. The worker is used, in the words of the writer of this pamphlet, "to the fijiajicial profit of persons or organisation?, -whose primary interest is to exploit the p risoner’s labour to the utmost, yet who carr y no res­ponsibility, either to the prisoner 1 limself or to society at large.” (p. 7)

Broadly, there are two system s.Under the ‘contract’ system, <die prisoner

is maintained within the prison , at the ex­pense of the state He may recei .ve a wage so low as to be negligible. He rnjiy receive no wage at all, for many prisonerrs not eligible under the prison regulations t;o be paid for their work, nevertheless take part in contract work, as certain political p risoners do on Robben Island, gathering se aweed from the shore.

The other system, the lease’ system, is the most infamous, and has been the occasion for the most shocking abuse of human beings, as the prisoner is hande-d over to the cus­tody of the employer, v id there is no form of supervision or check, on what provision the employer is making for his accommod­ation and welfare.

Though the ‘lease'' system was abolished in Britain itself in 180'2. the British administ- in the Cape introduced it and encouraged it there during the Nineteenth century, and extended it to the 7i'ransvaal and the Orange Free State after the conquest of these two territories Well into the twentiethcentury.it was still being use d by De Beers and certain engineering firms. (On the construction of the Swartberg mountain pass, ISO prisoners died, many of them frozen to death; the contractor was congratulated by the Minister for Public Wor'ics on giving “wonderful value for money.”) In 1953-54, the Afrikaner Nationalist Cabinet finally decided that prison labour was to be handed over only to farmers.

Frequently, all the fanner has to pay to get his labour is a bribe, in-the form of a bot tie of whisky or some such, to an official kno wn as the ‘prisoner’s friend.’ The prison­ers a.re often despatched straight from court, trnd ithough the law provides that they must gjve their consent before being sent to a farm, it seei us that most of the time consent is not asked for, and outright refusals are ignored. After that, they are completely at the mercy t if a white farmer, who enforces his own rules, with guns, dogs and a sjambok. From th. e fanner’s point of view, this labour is even c heaper than workers- employed in the usual way, and some farmers have been known to use their influence with the local police to i?et their labourers arrested, and returned t o the farm as prison labourers. One effect of the situation is to keep farm wages down.

For the last thirty years, in spite of re­ports in Drum' magazine in 1952 and again in 1955, in spite of Ruth First’s investigation into conditions on the potato farms in the Bethel district in 1959, in spite of declara­tions from the International Labour Organ­isation and from the United Nations, in spite of various cases that have come out in the press from time to time, the practice con­tinues. It has bee n pretty well covered up, considering the efforts that have been made to expose it.

The cover-up lias been achieved in a number of ways, the1 prisons and the police, who make the arrange ments, keep silent, and the farmers’ guns ami dogs keep reporters out, just as they keep the prisoners in; of­ficial terminology is de signed to conceal the truth (for example the l easing out is referred to as part of the ‘parole system,’ and pris­oners on farms as ‘parolet.^s’); and there is the complicity of the local police (when one prisoner, having completed his sentence, was not released, he escaped anil went to the pol­ice, who returned him to th<s farm).

This pamphlet is, therefore, welcome. It is comprehensive, factual, well documen­ted. Case histories, in an appendix, are fully

£ given. The writer is clearly impelled by a

passionate indignation, and so he succeeds in keeping in the mind of the reader the appal­ling human suffering involved in this evil and obnoxious system. It is one of the reasons we are fighting a struggle for liberation; it is an integral and typical part of the system we are fighting against.

o m

THE TRANS­NATIONALSt : i *■J i I

W* -*•* *- - ; — »4 L a S i W « ft *

W R Bo fining fed). Black Migration to South Africa, A Selection o f Policy-Orientated Research, International Labour Office, Geneva, 1981, £5.70.

Apart from the Maputo study on Mozambican migrant labour, led by Ruth First a few years ago, this is the first major study on the con­temporary migration of labour to South Africa, that has appeared with the intention of ending the system. Research teams in Le­sotho, Swaziland, Denmark and Geneva, init­iated by the International Labour Office with UN support, have combined to produce this informative study.

Its gradualist approach notwithstanding, the object of the study is to put on the agenda the destruction of the present system bf labour migration to South Africa by re­commending “ways and means for reducing the migrant-sending countries’ dependence on employment opportunities in South Africa under the migrant labour system as it has been constituted by the ruling minority."

There are few more important questions than this for the economic independence of Southern Africa, and the impact on the South African economy of the withdrawal

of this labour power, is crucial to the liber­ation struggle.

In the course of their research work, the authors uncover the dilemma of South African capital in protecting the long-term reproduction of its labour supply.

Policy of ‘Internalisation’The policy evolved by the South African state and elevated by it to the level of ‘theory’ is referred to as ‘internalisation.’ By it is meant more than simply substituting internal South African workers for the 327 000 migrants at present recruited from Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. The word refers to a process, intended to deal with capital's sense of uncertainty that the supply of migrants, on relatively long-term con­tracts, from the independent countries of Southern Africa, will be maintained. Making a virtue of necessity, the policy is also con- concerned with using (to its own advantage) the mass of unemployed Africans that has characterised the South African economy over the past two years.

The thrust of the study as a whole, how ever, is to put forward practical mechanisms to hasten the withdrawal of non-local work­ers from South Africa. The aim is to provide strategies to reconstruct the economies of Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Mozam­bique, and develop an infrastructure for modem industry and agriculture that will en­able these countries, for the first time in over a century, to reproduce their labour power for the benefit of their own peoples.

The impact of such a plan on the South African economy is too complex and prob­lematical to forecast, but it would have the effect of challenging capital to restructure its labour force in a way that would help it to cope with a restricted, less experienced labour supply — particularly on the mines, whose workers from Malawi and Mozambique are engaged on contracts two or three times longer than those for local workers — and to adjust its rural-urban policies, as well as its wage structures, to provide an ade­quate distribution of labour power to the

farms, mines and manufacturing industries.AD lectors of South African capital are

therefore vulnerable to effective African re­sistance, especially in mining, where the encouragement of African trade unions, and a sudden rise in wages, has recently taken place, possibly to make the industry more competitive with manufacturing, but also to ensure uninterrupted mining production.

The disparity between wages in manu­facturing and mining, and the competition for labour that it causes, may be offset by a lowering of wages in manufacturing, as in­vestments continue to be diverted to the Ban- tustans and border areas. State intervention to secure this may partially explain why re­location policies are currently being escal­ated, and the promulgation of the Orderly Movement of Persons and Resettlement Bill.

The ILO AttitudeThe ILO study, however, is more con­cerned with the effect that ‘internalisation’ and the planned withdrawal of labour power will have upon the supplier countries. Hence the strategy suggested is a gradualist app­roach for a “compensated withdrawal," which (they note) “could only take place if the gold mining industry in particular, and South Africa in general, realised they could no longer unilaterally define the rules of the game, and that it was in their economic and political self-interest to play by the new rules.”

In the process, however, the phased withdrawal would occur over the next fif­teen years, and the labour system that has historically reproduced the apartheid struc­tures will continue, with a UN back-up fund, supplemented by capital’s own contrib­utions, until the end of the century. The authors’ insensitivity to the internal and ex­ternal pressures on the apartheid regime, and to the armed struggle, lead them to accept the apartheid state as a given fact until, at least, the year 2 000 — which (coincident­ally?) the Anglo-American Corporation be­lieves is the time that the gold on the Wit- watersrand will have become a wasted asset.

Chamber of Mines Protects its Profits ' The Anglo-American Corporation is ieen as the most prescient of all representatives of South African capital. It argued for ‘internal­isation’ in the late sixties. It foresaw the vul­nerability of its industry through industrial conflicts and declining supplies of labour from the independent African countries, and pressed for increases in mine wages and heavier local recruitment. This occurred in the seventies, but only with what some be­lieved was divine intervention, manifested by a leap in 1972 in the price of gold, to the order of 39% over the previous year, rising to 65% in 1974. Labour policies were, in ef­fect, influenced by a consistent rise in the price of gold for over a decade. Not only did the price of gold rise from R25.80 per fine oz. in 1970 to R168.90 in 1978, but work­ing profits per African employee increased astronomically. In 1971, the profit per African employee was R929.1S; in 1978 it was R4 162.50, that is, more than five times the wage of an African mineworker in 1980. Working profits per ton of ore mined in­creased from R4.48 in 1971 to R22.40 in 1978.

The protection of these profits depended on the stability of the labour supply, and on avoiding a sudden cessation of this supply, as in 1974, when Malawi withdrew its labour power, and at a stroke deprived the mining industry of 25% of its labour force. (It was reduced from 422 181 in 1973 to 364 658 one year later.)

The reliance of apartheid on workers from abroad has up till recently been one of the significant features of the system: in 1964, 51% of all African miners came from countries outside South Africa, while in 1977 this figure was 45%.

The extent to which the mine owners have been sensitive to the source of their labour supply may be seen in the sharp de­cline of migrants between 1973 and 1974, the critical years, when traditional policies of recruiting labour were involuntarily re­versed, and 1977, when the number of non-

30 South African migrants fell by more than

130 000, from 33 5 000 to 203 500. Malawian migrants declined in number by 120 000 between 1973 and 1975 — by deliberate action of the Malawian government - and in1976.WhenMozambique (not entirely by de­sign) reduced its own supply. In all, 69 465 fewer Mozambicans entered the South Afric­an labour market over the space of two years (from 118 030 to 48 565). The short­fall was offset by the increased labour move­ments from Botswana, Lesotho and Swazi­land, who supplied 108 500 workers in 1973 and increased that number to 136 000 in1977, the peak year of the Mozambican re­duction.

The pattern of the Chamber of Mines’ policy of ‘internalisation’ had become clear by 1979, when the total non-South African labour on affiliates of the Chamber was 204 000, supplemented by 274 000 from within South Africa. The mine owners’ object is to continue the shift towards the employment of local workers by drawing in­creasingly on the local labour supply. Whether the employers in South Africa have acted deliberately or reactively, capital has drastically reduced its dependence on Moz­ambican labour, and shifted it to Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland, where it sees the continued reproduction of the labour supply as less problematical.

The shift in the significance of Mozam­bique relative to the other countries is very stark when the numbers are considered. In 1966, Mozambique exported 109 000 workers to South Africa; in 1979 only 19 000. Lesotho sent 64 000 in 1966 and 109 000 in 1979. The importance of the local labour force and the full measure of contingency planning on the part of the mining sector is evident in the increase of the local South African mining labour force from 130 000 in 1966 to 274 000 in 1979.

The dependence of capital on labour power from within South Africa has exacer­bated a whole range of conflicts that may be very far-reaching, and the ILO study is val­uable for the insights it provides on these. The sharpest point of conflict is likely to

This photograph o f prison labourers on a farm taken by the late Comrade Eli Weinberg before the Prisons Act made such photography illegal

turn on the competition between the differ­ent sectors of capital - mining, manufac­turing, farming, — for a restricted labour force, and on threats to the profitability of capitalist enterprises caused by changes in productivity.

The important policy instrument used by the mines to give effect to their internal­isation strategy, has been the use of wage in­creases to attract labour. African cash wages on the mines accordingly rose from R350 p j . in 1973 to R813 in 1980. The rise was

not entirely gratuitous, for there were serious labour conflicts on the mines. But the policy virtually reversed the traditional very low wage policy of the Chamber of Mines, where wages had risen by 391% be­tween 1931 and 1973 (from R71 p.a. to R350 pa.). By comparison, wages in the manufacturing industry increased by 925% in the same period.

All this served to reduce the rate of cap­ital accumulation, and would have continued to do so, but for the increase in the capital/ 31

labour n tio within the country. With changes in technology, and the need of the industry for a smaller but more productive labour force, the crisis of labour has recently been made less acute for capital. In effect, recent developments within the economy, charact­erised* by the restructuring of capital this time, served to reduce the growth of demand for African labour in manufacturing and con­struction, and have been the cause of mass unemployment. The ‘crisis’ is not one of a labour shortage, but of the distribution of the right kind of labour.

Since the reason for the existence of migrant labour has been to obtain maximum profits by means of a large labour force oscil­lating between urban and rural sites, the system has frequently resulted in extended periods of unemployment, and little train­ing in skills. The industrial colour bar and racial job barriers have equally excluded Africans from access to skilled occupations. This policy of deliberate undervelopment of skills and continued shortage of skilled labour has, over the years, impeded the development of the machine to d , manufacturing and engineering industries. A smaller, more pro­ductive, technically efficient work force is, however required now, and this is what the migrant system has never encouraged. With the current tendency to revise traditional labour practices, it would not be too far­fetched to suggest that, among other things, the encouragement of African trade unions is part of the process of incorporating the African work force in capital’s battle to re­lieve white labour of its monopoly of skills.

Complexity of Forces.Whilst Black Migration to South Africa does not address all the issues and is not without its problems, its survey of migrant labour supplies, is historical overview of changes in social relations on the land, the case study of conditions on the gold mines and recommen­dations for the reduction of dependence on migrant labour in South Africa, are inval­uable studies for all who seek the ending of

32 apartheid. The detailed chapters on labour

migration in Swaziland and the plight of migrant workers’ families in Lesotho are like­wise serious contributions to the study of the South African migrant labour system. Although there may be reservations about the conclusions it draws, this ILO initiative to promote careful research on the crucial issue of migrant labour in Southern Africa can only be welcomed.

The depth of South Africa’s economic crisis still needs much analysis.

This is especially so, if capital’s current recasting of the labour structure, and other changes, real and apparent, are to be seen in perspective. The changes encompass a virtual demographic revolution; sweeping reversals in industrial practice, and increasing recourse to the notion of ‘internalisation.’ It is evident from the simultaneous changes being made in industrial relations, the urban areas, the countryside, and in the political arena, that the representatives of the country’s capital have been forced to adopt significantly new high-risk strategies in response to the many pressures upon it.

The -result has been to destabilise the whole system, and to produce strains within the ruling party, as well as to generate much antagonism from its rightly styled ‘conservat­ive’ fragments, whose supporters believe they have more to gain in maintaining the status quo than in departing from it.

Add to this, the escalation of the armed struggle; African resistance to relocation;in­tensified rural struggles and urban and indust­rial confrontation, and it becomes clear that the state is neither sufficiently united nor sufficiently unchallenged to resolve its prob­lems at its own pace, nor to pursue its pol­icies exactly as it wishes. It is this perspective that is absent from the ILO study on South Africa’s incipient labour crisis. It aims at the heart of the apartheid labour system, but is designed to take the sting out of the process of dismantling it, both for the countries that reproduce the labour power for the South African economy, and for the South African state itself.

NL

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Collection Number: AK2117 DELMAS TREASON TRIAL 1985 - 1989 PUBLISHER: Publisher:-Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand Location:-Johannesburg ©2012

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